This invention is directed to a system and method for taking inventory, and in particular, for taking the inventory of the amount of fluid in containers on hand before or after consumption over a period of time.
The inventory and control of beverages, such as liquor, by way of example, is a pressing problem in any business that dispenses liquid, for example, on a daily basis. It is necessary for businesses such as restaurants, bars and nightclubs, to maintain a running inventory of beverages on hand.
It is estimated that establishments having inventories of beverages within containers have shrinkage rates of 23%. In other words, one in four drinks disappears as a result of spillage, evaporation or unaccounted for consumption. Shrinkage arises in part from a lack of accounting for inventory on a daily basis.
Although point of sale data can be used as an estimator of the amount of beverages consumed during business hours, it does not account for waste, spillage, free drinks or even evaporation (collectively known as shrinkage). Nor does it account for any inconsistencies in the amount of beverages consumed from order to order when liquids are free poured by a variety of employees to fulfill orders. It only provides a count of drinks ordered through this system and estimates the amount of beverages consumed based upon an idealized recipe for each sale, i.e. each order is made with exactly the same amount of liquid regardless of who prepares it. Therefore, although the point of sale count is adequate, it suffers from the shortcoming that it does not account for a significant amount of the beverage consumption and is inaccurate in its estimate, because it counts sales, not consumption.
In order to overcome this shortcoming, inventory is determined on a periodic basis through manual labor. An employee of the establishment will count the number of bottles having liquid in them, which is a function of total amounts of liquid consumed during that time period, and will estimate the amount of liquid remaining in any open containers to arrive at a new inventory. This system has been satisfactory and has continued to be used, however it suffers from the deficiency that it is labor intensive often taking hours. If it is performed during business hours, the employees performing the task may become distracted by the competing responsibilities of their job during business hours or just the general distractions of the commotion in the environment of a bar, nightclub or restaurant. Furthermore, an accurate inventory is almost impossible during business hours because containers full of beverages are continuously being consumed. If the job is delayed for after hours, then the employees are often tired and the process is prone to human error. This method is extremely inaccurate and requires the same person to do inventory every time for consistent eye-balled estimations of liquid remaining in open bottles. Lastly, because it also takes five to six man hours to complete, making it impractical to do on a daily basis leaving establishment owners and managers unsure of their inventory assets on a daily basis.
Automated inventory taking systems have been developed such as those known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,037 which defines a computer based system for taking physical inventory of beverages dispensed in full and partially full containers in an attempt to control theft and over-pouring. This system scans bar codes on the bottles to identify product information about the scanned bottle and provides a silhouette of a bottle to the user on a screen of a computing device. The user indicates, by touching the silhouette of the bottle on the screen, the fluid level within the bottle. They may touch the full symbol, empty symbol, some intermediate symbol to input the quantity of beverage remaining in a partially filled bottle that has been scanned. These inventories are then processed. Additionally, it requires a bar code scan for each inventoried bottle. This system has been satisfactory, however, it too is time intensive and as a result of general input icons such as full, empty, quarter or the like, or fat thumb processing by touching the screen with a user's finger misprocessing and limited accuracy as a result of the screen size and finger size of the user results, and causes confusion amongst its users.
Accordingly, a system and method which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art to more accurately and quickly inventory partially filled containers is desired.